Locker unit



July 3, 1962 R. G. MONEY LocKER UNIT Filed May 4, 1959 2 ROBERT s. MONEYfwwLZ/@Q/ ATTORNEYS United States Patent @dice 3,042,470 Patented July3, 1962 This invention relates as indicated to a locker unit and moreparticularly to a locker unit in which articles of clothing can be hungon hangers and yet the locker unit will have a much shorter overalldepth normal to the front thereof than would normally be required forthis purpose.

The conventional lockers for the storage of clothing, etc., are notsufiiciently -deep to permit coats, shirts, etc., to be hung on hangersSince this would require approximately two feet of depth. When deeplockers are employed, they generally protrude into the locker room tosuch an extent that many fewer lockers may be utilized in a locker room.Moreover deep lockers markedly contribute to the congestion of lockerrooms since deep lockers require more lloor space.

Furthermore, in the deeper locker units, the shelves for bottom shoelockers or top hat compartments are generally much too deep and narrowvfor the purposes for which they are intended. Moreover, indeep narrowlockers, shoes have to be placed therein in end to end relationshipinstead of side-by-side. If other items are stored in the locker, as forexample golf equipment, etc., it is extremely dicult to find and haveaccess to ones shoes or other small articles placed therein.

It is accordingly a principal object of my invention to provide a lockerunit having a front to rear depth normal to the front of the locker unitinsu'icient to accommodate a coat hanger, but having compartmentstherein of sufticient effective depth readily to accommodate such coathanger.

It is afurther principal objectof my invention to provide a locker whichcan readily be adapted to modular locker units having a plurality ofside-by-side compartments having intervening side partitions disposeddiagonally to the rear of the locker unit, the length of the diagonalside partitions being at least equal to the length of a standard coathanger whereas the overall front to rear depth normal to the rear of thelocker unit is less than the length of such coat hanger.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a locker unit thatwill accommodate coat hangers therein and yet have a minimal front torear depth so as not to contribute excessively to the congestion of thelocker room.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention,then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described andparticularly pointed out in the claims, the following description andthe annexed drawings setting forth in detail a certain illustrativeembodiment of the invention, this being indicative, however, of but oneof the various ways in which the principles of the invention may beemployed.

In said annexed drawing:

FIG. l illustrates a locker room employing locker units in the generalform of my invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of a typical locker unit built in accordancewith my invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged somewhat schematic horizontal section takengenerally on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged horizontal section taken generallyl on the line4--4 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged horizontal section taken generally on the line 5-5of FIG. 2.

Referring now to the drawing and more particularly to FIG. l thereof,there is illustrated a conventional rectangular locker room employinglockers that can be generally 12 inches square for example. It can beseen that with these relatively small units that there is a considerableamount of circulating space within the locker room l. The lockers may beemployed along the walls as generally indicated at 2. These units mayline three of the four walls and in addition thereto, I may provide acenter locker unit generally shown at 3 which would consist -of 2separate locker units in back-to-back relationship. lf the locker unitsare increased in depth to approximately 2l inches, for example, it canbe seen that there will be considerably less circulating space withinthe locker room.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 through 5, there is illustrated a typicallocker unit constructed in accordance with my invention. The locker unitwhich is roughly l2 or more inches in depth can be extended to anydesired length as by adding single or multiple units `depending upon thedimensions of the particular locker room application. The unit generallycomprises a metallic housing 4 formed from metallic parts such as sheetsteel by suitable spot welding, rivet or bolt construction in a mannerconventional in the art. The back of the housing 4 comprises simply aback plate 5 which can extend the entire length of the locker unit andforms a rear edge therefor. It will, of course, be understood that thisback plate may be provided with various spaced louvered ventilationopenings as desired. It is entirely possible, of course, to employ thelocker room wall as the back plate of the unit if the unit is securelyfastened to the floor. In this manner the back plate 5 may be omitted.

The ends of the particular unit shown comprise a vertically extendingside plate 6 and -a door plate 7 having hinged thereto a conventionallocker door 8. It will, of course, be understood that in certain lockerunit applications the end door 8 will not be available for use, however,in applications such as the central unit 3 as illustrated in FIG. l, enddoor 8 may readily be employed. The front of the locker comprises acorner post 9 and a plurality of vertically extending doors lll for eachforwardly facing locker compartment. Between the doors there is a postconstruction employing vertically extending channel members 11 havingone side thereof facing a channel member l2 allochirally identical inform thereto. The facing elongated sides of the channels 11 and 12 maybe spot welded, bolted or otherwise suitably secured as shown at 13 toform a rigid post construction. Hinged to the channel plates 12 are theconventional locker doors 1t) which, as will be seen in FIG. 2, extendsubstantially the vertical height of the locker unit. It will, ofcourse, be understood that each of the locker compartments may beprovided with separate doors.

Interiorly of the locker unit, I place horizontal shelves 14 and 15.These shelves may extend the entire length of the locker unit and format the top and bottom thereof, hat shelves and the top of shoe or otherstorage compartments. The shelves, of course, may be assembled insections for each individual unit and may be placed at any desiredheight. Extending vertically from these shelves 14 and 15 are shortpanel sections 16 and 17 which connect the shelves 14 and 15 with therespective bottom and top of the locker unit. In this manner, it can beseen that each of the forwardly facing lockers will have at the top andbottom thereof rectangular compartments formed by the horizontal shelvesand the respective vertical panel members.

In the intermediate portion of the locker between the shelves 14 and 15,I provide diagonal panel partition sections 18 which can be secured asby rivets, spot welds or bolts to the elongated sides of the channels 11and 12. These diagonal panel members 18 provide an intermediatevertically elongated locker section or compartment in which coat hangersmay be placed on suitable supports. It will, of course, be understoodthat the exact angle of the panels 18 with respect to the front or rearof theunit is not critical, however, it should be within a range of25-45 v In this manner, lockers having an effectiveintermediatevcompartment depth of approximately 24 inches can beprovided without increasing the floor area covered thereby. With specialreference to FIG. 3, it will be seen that a conventional coat hanger Hcan easily be placed within the intermediate compartment parallel to thepartition 1S. The hanger may be hung on a conventional support S whichcan be a hook or suitable bar secured either to the top shelf or thediagonal partition 18. The 4diagonal partition members 18 do not jointhe face or front edge of the unit but are spaced therefrom a depth ofapproximately l or 2 inches by the channels 11 and 12. This permits thechannels 11 and 12 to, provide the necessary rigidity and moreover givessufficient room at the post for the assembly of the parts. Furthermore,this permits the door 1t) which may have a small depth to be recessedwithin the face of the locker unit.

It is, of course, understood that the end door 8 does not extendvertically beyond the horizontal shelves 14 and 15. The rectangularcompartments for this locker could be provided at the opposite end ofthe unit, however, it may readily be seen that the locker unit may beshortened to the lines indicated at 19 if the opposite end is not to beused as the compartment portion for the end locker. In this manner, itwill now be seen that lockers having a depth suiicient to hang overcoatsor the like therein can be provided with less than the space requiredfor short rectangular locker units in which people would be unable tohang coats on a hanger. More'- over, my locker unit provides separatehat and shoe compartments of shorter effective depth thereby making itmuch more easyrto store items such as hats, shoes, golf balls, etc. Asshown at 20, the locker doors may be provided with the usual louveredventilation openings in a conventional manner. It will also beunderstood that the diagonal partitions 18 can be suitably spot welded,riveted or bolted to the back plate in a conventional manner as shown at21. They may further be secured to the shelves 14 and 15 in a similarconventional manner. The various sections or components of the lockersuch as the sides, back, door frame, etc., of each individual locker maybe assembled by bolting by the purchaser utilizing untrained labor. Inthis manner, the components can be connected into a series of lockerswhich can be any length. l

It will also be understood that my unique locker construction may beemployed in an automatic checking operation, as for example, in crowdedairline or bus terminals. The intermediate portion of my locker unitwill, of course, accommodate luggage or other parcels which aconventional short rectangular unit would' not. The hat and shoecompartments in this arrangement CTI 4 would accommodate any small itemdesired to be checked.

Referring again to FIG. l, it can be seen that with the use of my lockerunits employing diagonal intermediate partitions, lockers having no morethan a l2 inch depth, for example, can be used to hang coats or the liketherein without increasing the oor space required therefor. Moreover itcan be seen that the locker unit 22 which would be a blind or unusablelocker in a conventional arrangement may now be used to increase thedepth of the intermediate portions of the adjacent locker 23 and in thismanner utilizing the space in the locker room more advantageously. Ascan be seen deep rectangular units thatl would be required to providethe same locker depth that is provided in my diagonally partitioned unitwould extend into the locker room a con* siderable distance as shown at24 considerably reducing the remaining floor space and obviouslycontributing to the congestion of the locker room. Of course, the`diagonal locker may extend the full height of the unit. In this manner,the hat and shoe shelves would extend diagonally within the locker. Anyarrangement may be employed depending upon the requirement of theparticular locker installation.

It will readily be seen that the diagonal compartments of my unit caneasily accommodate a standard coat hanger which is 16 to 17 inches long,an additional 2 inches usually being required for a bulky overcoat orthe like, when hung thereon. Furthermore with the use of diagonalparallelogram compartments the maximum dimension from one corner to theopposite corner has been greatly increased and in this manner permittingthe storage of even longer articles such as card tables, etc. Ifdesired, of course, the front to rear depth of the locker may beforeshortened and this maximum dimension utilized to accommodatehangers.

Other modes of applying the principles of the invention may be employed,change being made as regards the details described, provided thefeatures stated in any of the following claims, or the equivalent ofsuch, be employed.

I, therefore, particularly point out and distinctly claim as myinvention:

l. A locker unit for garments and the like comprising a plurality ofcompartments in side-by-side relation having a common rear wall, a doorfor each compartment, each of said doors being parallel to the commonrear wall of said unit when closed, divider partitions between each`compartment parallel to each other and diagonal to said rear wallextending from said rear wall :to the respective doors to provide aplurality of oblique parallelepiped enclosed compartments, said doorsextending vertically between said divider partitions.

2. A locker unit as set forth in claim l including a garment hangersupport within the upper part of each compartment adapted to supportsuch hanger with the maximum dimension of the latter disposedsubstantially parallel to said diagonal partitions.

3. A locker unit comprising a front panel plate having verticallyextending doors therein, lockers for each door comprising diagonalcompartments of suicient depth to hang tcoats and the like therein onhangers and subsidiary compartments having partitions normal to thefront panel plate of said locker, said subsidiary compartment extendingthe full depth of said locker unit and having a depth insucient to hangcoats and the like therein on hangers.

4. A locker unit comprising a back panel member, a side panel member anda front panel member, having spaced vertically extending access doorstherein, said locker unit being of an overall front to rear depth normalto said back panel member insufficient to accommodate coat hangers, ahorizontally extending upper shelf therein, panels vertically extendingfrom said upper shelf to the top of said locker between said accessdoors and normal to said back panel member, a horizontally extendinglower shelf in said locker and vertically extending panels normal tosaid back panel member connecting said lower shelf and the bottom ofsaid locker unit between said access doors, vertically extendingdiagonal partitions be tween said lower shelf and said upper shelf andconnected to the front of said locker unit between said access doors andforming intermediate diagonal compartments therein of an effective depthsuicient to hang coats therein on hangers.

244,818 McLean July 26, 1881 6 Bliss May 10, Lambert .lune 25, Armstrong.Tune 13, Foose June 29, Thornton uly 31,

FOREIGN PATENTS Germany June 5,

